A lamp for motor vehicles, contains multiple lighting units wherein each of these lighting units provides a different light function or contributes to ensuring the required emission characteristic of the light trace. Individual lighting units are generally mounted in a shaped carrying bushing of the lamp while each unit contains at least one light source and other optical elements. The light source of the light unit emits light rays and the optical elements represent a system of refractive and reflective surfaces and interfaces of optical environments that influence the direction of light rays within the creation of the output light trace.
The documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,675B2 and US20010026457A1 disclose designs of headlights whose optical system comprises an assembly of elliptic and parabolic reflectors wherein light is sent directly from the light source to the primary elliptical reflector and from the primary reflector, light is sent indirectly to the secondary parabolic reflector. This way, light rays generated by the light source can be first routed in one direction and subsequently in another direction. A disadvantage of the above-mentioned solutions is the fact that at present, signal lamps of motor vehicles are subject to the requirement that the emitted light beams should produce various light patterns that fulfil a certain stylistic function. For instance a reflector array does not make it possible to produce an output beam of light rays shaped into a certain stylistic line as in the case of using a linear light guide. The above-mentioned solutions are not adapted to provide more different light functions either, especially a combination of a positional light, daytime running light and the light of a directional indicator while there is a trend of using dynamic, gradual lighting up of a directional indicator as indicated, e.g. in the document US20130127612A1.
The document DE102013104176A1 discloses an embodiment of a light device comprising a longitudinally oriented linear light guide whose at least one end is adapted to bind primary light rays from the primary light source and whose surface comprises the front output surface for the output of primary light rays. At the rear side of the light guide, an unbinding surface is situated that is fitted with unbinding elements to direct primary light rays passing through the light guide to the output surface. The light device further comprises at least one reflector unit comprises a secondary light source and a reflector adapted to reflect secondary light rays emitted from the secondary light source towards the rear side of the light guide. In the propagation direction of the light rays, before the light guide, a screen is arranged to produce the required shape of the beam of light rays so that the beam of secondary light rays is only sent to a part of the rear side of the light guide. A disadvantage of this design is the fact that using the screen reduces efficiency of the light rays wherein a part of the emitted rays remains unused as it is caught by the screen.
The object of the invention is to propose a light device for a motor vehicle comprising an array of reflectors to direct secondary light rays to the light guide adapted to conduct primary light rays while the light device must meet various designer requirements for the output light beam of multiple light functions and at the same time, high light efficiency of the optical system must be ensured.